Okay Friends, I wrote this piece sort of reviewing the movies Broadcast News and Network. I would be definitely interested in what you think. If you havent watched these movies, I would highly recommend them though I do find one to be a tad better movie. And of course, I do relate each movie to the current state of news and some of our famous journalists of today. Thanks for the read: Two of my all-time favorite movies are “Network” and “Broadcast News.” Both had stellar casts full of colorful characters. There is no doubt that Broadcast News (1987), which stars William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter, seemed undoubtedly more realistic than Network (1976), which aimed at being a satirical and outlandish view of network television. Network had its bevy of big-time stars including Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Robert Duvall, though Peter Finch and his Howard Beale character definitely stole the show. (Note: Finch deservedly won the Oscar for Best Actor) I love both movies and after viewing both movies a generation ago, I initially liked Broadcast News better. Again, it came across more timely and topical, and I felt a bit more realistic. And the scene with Albert Brooks’ character reading the news and getting flop sweat had me in stitches. The movie concerned itself with the ever-increasing concerns of network news. One were budget cuts threatening the quality of the product and basically the shallow intellect (and accompanying good looks) of those reading the news, though in reality William Hurt’s character was no dummy, nor was that of the national news anchor played by Jack Nicholson. But they weren’t as sharp on the issues or as well read as Hunter’s and Brooks’ characters who truly believed what they were doing was truly significant for Western Civilization. Hunter’s character was the genius behind the scenes as the news producer while Brooks’ character was the true newsman who mistakenly wanted to be the anchor but wasn’t good-looking enough to land the role. And as he found out, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. In the end, the movie generally still embraced the news industry but was more or less a tale where each of the three main characters fit in it. Brook’s character went back to the smaller market where he felt the news reporting business was more pure. Hunter’s character would become THE big-time producer, while Hurt’s character would be sent to the London office to be groomed to become the next big-time anchor. In both movies, the romance stories actually turned out as they should adding to the brilliance of each flick. But now I look back, while Broadcast News is a very good movie, Network is a true timeless classic. And in the end, though Finch’s Howard Beale’s character seems too utterly ridiculous, his character and the movie itself has proved to be prophetic beyond belief. And Network gave us one of the all-time greatest lines in movie history when Beale exclaimed, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” This “Mad as Hell” line has been used by journalists and others over the years and currently is a segment on “Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor.” Here, today’s common man (or Fox News viewer) can sound off on what is bugging them about our government and society. See reality does imitate art. But the more obvious parallel to Beale isn’t O’Reilly but rather Glenn Beck, who used to have a show of his own on Fox News. It seemed that Beck summoned Beale’s character from beyond the metaphorical grave for his show. Like Beale’s fictional hour-long show, Beck rarely had guests but used chalkboards and other props to illustrate arguments and he moved around the room much like Beale ranting and raving at various levels on various subjects. In the movie Network Beale’s show became the number-one program in television while Beck’s show had its own meteoric rise on Fox News becoming at one time the second highest rated show behind The Factor. The common thread between Beale, Beck and O’Reilly is that they saw/see themselves of educators, not just commentators. O’Reilly reminds his viewers every day that “he’s looking after the folks.” Of course I believe O’Reilly and Beck to be quite sane, though many might disagree, while Beale of course truly went mad. But Beale and Beck do share on thing in common as both have a religious fervor to their endeavors. In regards to the real world, when one compares O’Reilly to Beck, one generally stayed in the Fox News box while the other went off the rails a bit. Let’s face it, Beck’s show got a bit weird, even for many Fox News viewers, and eventually Beck left the network A pivotal scene in Network was the scene between the chairman of the network played brilliantly by Ned Beaty, and Beale. In one of his episodes, Beale had ranted against people watching television and his network being bought out by a foreign conglomerate from Saudi Arabia. This leads to the fateful scene where Beaty’s character does some ranting of his own to convince Beale to change his message. Since Beale is far from emotionally stable, he is convinced that Beaty’s character might be some heavenly messenger or THE heavenly messenger. I can only imagine a similar meeting taking place between Beck and Rupert Murdoch, where the latter was probably getting a bit worried about the direction of Beck’s show. Unlike Sean Hannity and O’Reilly (and I know O’Reilly calls himself an “independent” but he seems pretty conservative to most people), Beck’s program didn’t follow the typical conservative mantra Fox News’ owner Murdoch has brought America. Beck regularly attacked conservatives and conservative policies and vilified everyone from Mitt Romney to Teddy Roosevelt. But unlike Beale, Beck wasn’t going to play ball, and in fact, Beck took his ball and left Fox News to create his own network. As for Beale (Warning: Spoiler Alert!), while the chairman of the board was pleased with Beale’s new approach to his show, other network executives, including Dunaway’s character, weren’t. Ratings for Beale’s show went down the drain because Beale had simply become a conduit for Beaty’s character. Therefore, his program lost its zest and public appeal. But the conundrum was that while the lousy ratings didn’t bother Beaty’s character, it still hurt the bottom dollar of the network and risked people’s jobs. So this finally led to the movie’s final scene where Dunaway’s character arranges for Black extremists to gun down Beale during his show. The movie ends with a voice over stating, “Howard Beale was the first person in television history killed because of bad ratings.” Another truly prophetic message was the extremists were the subjects of their own reality show. Remember, reality television didn’t exist quite at the level in 1976 it does now, though many that lived in the day certainly loved “Candid Camera.” And while many people today are enamored with “Duck Dynasty”, personally I would have found a reality show based on The Black Panthers, or equivalent organization, much more captivating. Let’s face it, even with our technological gadgetry, the 1970’s were a much more interesting time. But that’s another story. Perhaps Network’s most prophetic element was the direction of news itself. Beale’s show was a news show, though a very bizarre one. But I would imagine that many would view Beck’s show the same way. Network news on the Big 3 networks has hit a new low in ratings. Network news on the Big 3 networks has become what Hunter’s and Brooks’ characters in Broadcast News feared, a generally superficial product of marginal importance. But the movie “Network” was more accurate in what the broader (cable) network news landscape has become, which is a smorgasbord of less interesting Howard Beale’s who fortunately for now, will just be canceled rather than killed for bad ratings.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 03:33:17 +0000
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